The present invention is directed to a rolling protective shutter assembly which has a protective shutter, for covering a window or door opening, that may be rolled up into a shutter housing when not in use.
Rolling protective shutters are conventional and are used to provide protection against extreme weather conditions and to deter theft, for example. One such rolling protective shutter is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,635 to Solomon. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of that patent, the Solomon shutter is composed of a plurality of elongate slats, each of which has a pair of circular ribs attached to its sides. The slats are interconnected by a plurality of elongate hinges, each of which has a pair of circular apertures in which the circular ribs of the slats are disposed. When the Solomon shutter is unrolled to its protective position, each of the slats in the shutter is disposed vertically. When not in use, the Solomon shutter may be rolled up into a housing disposed at the upper end of the protective shutter.
Although the Solomon protective shutter is specifically designed as a security closure for a store front, rolling protective shutters are also used to protect against extreme weather conditions, such as hurricanes. For that use, protective shutters are tested to determine their ability to withstand the extreme conditions caused by a storm. For example, such tests may include an impact test in which a wooden 2-by-4 is propelled at the shutter being tested at a speed of 35 miles per hour. A shutter that does not prevent the 2-by-4 from passing through it would fail the impact test.
It is highly advantageous that protective shutters be designed to pass such testing. To strengthen a flat shutter in which all of the slats are vertically disposed, such as the Solomon shutter, vertical reinforcing members periodically spaced along the width of the shutter have been utilized. However, such reinforcing members add to the cost of the shutter.
An alternative shutter design that has been used to provide additional strength is a rigid, unitary panel having horizontally disposed corrugations. Although the corrugations of the rigid panel give added strength, the panel design is undesirable since it is not capable of being rolled up. Unitary panels present a storage problem since they must be stored somewhere when not in use, and it is burdensome and impractical to use unitary panels to provide storm protection for windows above the ground floor of a building since the panels must somehow be secured, with the use of a ladder for example, to the outside of the windows.